Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/286

270 must have been reckoned on at some given moment. But, at the time when Maximilian's refusal to abdicate forced General Castelnau to assume the hostile attitude which had been tacitly foreseen at Paris, the latter, being only able to avail himself of verbal instructions, must have come in collision with the opposition of the head-quarters' authorities, resolved as they were to allow no alteration in the nature of their express orders, without formal directions from the government. A demand for orders addressed to the palace of the Tuileries must evidently have been the result of this collision. Hence, the imperial despatch of January 10; the French government had shrunk back at the last moment. If the marshal had been courtier enough to keep himself informed from Paris of the real line of policy which the cabinet of the Tuileries had for a long time suggested in regard to Mexico, of which it wished to wash its hands at any price, he would have been enlightened beforehand as to the course of conduct which events would be likely to impose upon him, and he would have retired in good time. Two thousand leagues away, how could he divine the wind that blew in the exalted regions of a court so variable as that of France? It would have been of service to him if he had constantly trimmed his sails, like the pilot who scans the horizon, that he may not be taken by surprise.

Since his return to Mexico, Maximilian began to perceive the inextricable complication of difficulties into which, urged on by Father Fischer, he had plunged himself body and soul. His hope of surmounting them became less every day. The unexpected recall of the foreign legion had disorganised the auxiliary contingents and the Mexican army; for the French volunteers refused to remain in the ranks of the latter after the departure of the Europeans. The Emperor of Mexico,